The availability of cheap electronic goods combined with our ever-advancing world of technology are rapidly creating a worldwide crisis. E-waste, or electronic waste, resulting from consumers improperly disposing of old equipment without a second glance, is taking its toll not only on the environment, but on the population as well.

The fastest growing waste stream in many countries, e-waste includes any item that utilizes a battery or plugs into an electrical outlet for operation.

Twenty five U.S. states have laws requiring e-waste recycling, which is typically free to consumers, however comprehensive federal laws have not yet been established. 15 states have landfill disposal bans on electronic waste. For information on your state, contact theNational Center for Electronics Recycling.

In cooperation with HirePatriots, a program of parent non-profit Patriotic Hearts dedicated to providing jobs for U.S. veterans and support services for their families, Mr. Electric® offers complete, professional electronic waste management solutions. As part of the Veterans Green Projects, HirePatriots is leading the way in providing safe e-waste recycling and disposal. Contact Mr. Electric today for all your e-waste management needs. With the help of HirePatriots, we can help you safely and responsibly recycle or dispose of your used electronic gadgets and appliances. Your world – and your family - is counting on you.  

August is here and that means the return to school for your young ones. Shorter autumn days bring a hectic round of sports, activities and events and calendars fill with cryptic notes. The holiday stress will follow and a new schedule will interrupt your relaxing summer. Get organized now with these tips so you can have a great school year!

Ease the Family into a School Year Schedule

The first day of school is no time for a drastic adjustment of household sleep schedules. Instead, ease children back into a school year routine gradually. During the last two weeks of summer, re-introduce a school year bedtime. Begin waking late sleepers earlier and earlier, closer to the hour they’ll need to rise when school begins.

Don’t neglect mealtimes! Younger children, in particular, need to adapt to new meal routines before the school day demands it of them. Plan meals and snacks to accustom little ones to rituals of the school day before the school year begins.

Create a Calendar that Everyone Can Use

Each school year floats on a sea of schedules. School functions. Lunch menus. Scout meetings and music lessons. What do you do when you’re drowning in paper?

You’ll need a family event calendar to track after-school activities, school programs and volunteer work. Add specialized calendars and schedules, and you have it: a one-stop shop for family time management.

Form is less important than function. A paper calendar with large squares lets you enter information easily. Pre-printed white board calendars are easy to revise when necessary. Color-coding entries by family member helps keep busy lives straight.

Paper planner fans dedicate a planner section to serve as the main calendar, while tech-savvy people store the info in a smart phone or tablet and sync with multiple computers. Choose a calendar format that works for your family.

Post the family event calendar in a public place near an area that gets a lot of use (like the kitchen or living room). Use magnets to attach the calendar to the refrigerator, or tack it to a bulletin board. Add other branches to the calendar as well: school lunch menus, class assignment sheets, sports practice schedules. When the teacher calls for field trip volunteers, you’ll know at a glance whether you’re free to join the group on the bus that day.

Plan Before You Shop

August is the second-biggest sales month for clothing retailers. Back to school clothing sales begin as early as July! Are you prepared to run the school clothes gauntlet? An informed shopper is a savvy shopper, so prepare before you shop.

Take an afternoon and assess each child’s clothing needs. Empty drawers and closets of outgrown or worn-out clothing, and either store or donate the discards. Develop a wardrobe needs list for each child. Check for possible hand-me-downs from older siblings as you make your list. If you discuss the needs list and the family budget with your children before you shop, you’ll avoid in-the-store tantrums.

Similarly, ask the school for classroom supply lists before shopping for school supplies. Do shop early! With back-to-school sales beginning in mid-July, tardy shoppers have a tough time locating needed supplies among September’s Halloween costumes and Christmas decorations.

The school year always brings a large amount of stress with it. By utilizing these tips, you’ll be sure to ease into coming months without as many headaches as you’ve had last year. By planning ahead, you’ll make back-to-school time far more easier and you’ll enjoy it more too!

Tangled wires are a pain in the neck. That's true whether you're managing multiple devices at your computer desk, trying to find space at a cluttered kitchen counter or juggling power tools at your workbench. One way to bring order to chaos is to create an overhead power strip, a project you can DIY with some very simple electrical work. Read on for some tips to get started.

A Simple Solution for Your Electrical Work

To create the most basic version of an overhead power strip, all you really need is a piece of wood, some screws, and a mountable power strip (look for one that has slots for screw heads in the bottom). For added convenience, a plastic raceway or access to a router tool will be helpful to secure the power strip's cord to the wood.

The first step, in that case, is to either use the router to cut a slot in the wood that can hold the cord, or attach the raceway to the wood for the same purpose. Make sure you leave room to attach the power strip itself, and there is enough cord left at the other end to reach the nearest outlet.

Securely Installing the Strip

Next, measure how far apart the screw slots are on the back of the power strip, and mark the distance out on the wood. Install appropriately-sized screws at the marked spots, leaving some clearance under the screw head so the power strip can easily slide on and off. Test out the setup and make sure that the strip fits and can hang securely upside down – if it's loose, you may have to adjust some of the screws.

Finally, you need to decide how to mount your overhead power strip. Options include hanging it under a kitchen cabinet or shelf on the workbench, affixing it to a wall, or using a post to hang it closer to the center of a room. Remember, this power strip is for your convenience, so you want to position it where it will be most useful.

Customize the Power Strip to Your Convenience

Of course, once you get the idea for how to hang a power strip, you can then customize it to your liking – for example, putting a hinge on the end allows you to swing it back against the wall when you aren't using it. You can also branch out with many of the modern, innovative power strip models on the market to customize your workspace even further.

For help keeping your cords in order, or assistance with any other electrical work, contact an expert electrician today.

Most people have experienced a circuit breaker trip at some time or the other; and the first couple of times it happens, it can be quite alarming. However, this is a very important safety component in any electrical circuit. A circuit breaker is essentially an automatic device used to stop the flow of current within a circuit, as a safety measure. It is specifically designed to protect your property, equipment in your home/commercial space and you from overloading the electrical circuit.

The sole reason a circuit breaker trips is to prevent the overheating and overloading of an electrical circuit, beyond the capacity of that circuit. If there is no breaker in place, the electrical units in that circuit can get damaged and potentially lead to a fire.

In case a circuit breaker trips, the very first thing to do is to locate it in your panel box. The switch you are looking for is the one that isn’t completely in an On/Off position. Once you turn the switch into the ‘on’ position, the power will be restored. In case the power doesn’t come on, simply switch it off and then on again.

If the circuit breaker trips even after you have reset it, don’t just try resetting it again. It’s doing what it’s designed to do and telling you that there is something wrong that has to be investigated. There are three different things that can cause a circuit breaker to trip:

This is the commonest cause of a circuit breaker trip. It occurs when the electrical energy that’s flowing through the circuit is much more than what it can handle. The simplest way to solve this problem is to redistribute the power to some other circuits. Very simply put, in case too many heavy appliances are connected to a single circuit, move a couple of them to one that isn’t as loaded.

It’s important that you check whether the circuits aren’t loose. First, switch off the power and look for any loose wires; you can do this by closely inspecting the hot wires and outlets that lead from the service panel to the circuit breaker, and then tighten the connection that’s loose.

If after checking the circuit overload, you find there aren’t any issues in that areas, the problem could be a short circuit. This is caused when any live wire touches another neutral/live wire. At times a short circuit may be caused by a broken wire within the breaker. It’s far more difficult to identify this as it could be just about any part of the wiring system which is connected to that circuit. At times, the culprit could be an appliance that’s plugged into an outlet.

This issue is quite a dangerous and severe one and it’s important that it be diagnosed quickly. It can be quite tedious to look for a short circuit and the outlets, plugs and wiring that are connected to that circuit, but these checks are important. Look for cracks or signs of burning in the insulation and call an electrician without delay.

If it’s neither a short circuit nor a circuit overload that’s caused the circuit breaker to trip, it could be a ground fault issue. This happens when any hot wire touches the metal outlet box or the ground wire.

If a circuit breaker trips in your home or commercial property, keep in mind that it’s a very serious issue and not something that should be ignored. For the best electrical solutions, call Allround Electrical at 1300 169 263. You can also drop us a line via email or contact us through this online form.

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